The Best Lead Generation Tactics for a High-Quality Healthcare Pipeline
If you’ve ever wondered - “what do I need to do to generate leads?” - don’t worry. You’re not alone.
In this article:
- Potential Patient Lead Generation for Healthcare Providers - Let's Go!
- Let's Talk SEO for the Healthcare Sector: What's Their "Symptoms" Language?
- Generate Leads for your Healthcare Practice Through Content Strategy
- Key Healthcare Lead Generation Strategies: Up Your Social Media Presence
- Send High-Quality Email Drip Campaigns to Boost Sales Leads
- Why Leading Healthcare Providers Use Events-Based Lead Generation
- Measuring Qualified Leads in the Healthcare Industry? Track Source Channels!
- Key Lead Benchmarks for Healthcare Marketing Teams
- High-Quality Lead Generation for Healthcare Professionals - Let's Wrap Up!
The answer is straightforward, but not easy. To get new leads without compromising your integrity in the healthcare industry, you have to build relationships, stick to a few proven strategies, leverage some specific healthcare lead generation tools (especially for B2B healthcare providers), and trust the process.
But in such a competitive industry, lead generation can be tricky!
That’s why we’ve pulled together some of our favorite tried-and-tested ways to generate medical leads, that actually work.
In today's world, to stay current, it really is more important than ever for healthcare-focused professionals to build the relationship between practitioner and patient - and that can begin early, if you do lead generation effectively.
Healthcare marketers have to implement effective lead generation campaigns, email marketing for healthcare, and lead nurturing strategies that drive referrals and repeat engagement.
This comprehensive guide explores proven lead generation strategies to help you find potential patients (and support them in their wellbeing) in a myriad of ways.
From considering the new patient’s (sometimes literal!) journey, to leveraging search engines, optimizing digital assets, executing targeted campaigns, investing in done-for-you services, and more, these actionable tactics will help your healthcare-focused business generate new patients, potential customers, and more.
Potential Patient Lead Generation for Healthcare Providers - Let's Go!
People of one kind or another all go through some kind of journey when it comes to thinking about signing up for, or registering with, a healthcare organization - and if you're savvy, you can use that journey to optimize your lead generation process.
Now, there are plenty of healthcare lead generation services out there (so-called lead generation experts!!), that will tell you there are numerous ways that they can easily turn your leads into paying customers. For just a minimal cost per lead, they'll optimize your website, take over your email marketing to generate new leads, improve how you distribute leads - you name it.
But - unless they're looking closely at the journey your new patient goes on to get to your medical services, they might not quite have your best interests at heart (and certainly not those of your target audience).
So let's talk about that journey for a moment.
In a nutshell, the metaphor we use as a way to generate leads is called "the buyer's journey". This is the process salespeople refer to when a prospective customer discovers your service, evaluates if it's good for them, and then chooses to purchase it (or not!).
Taking this metaphor and applying it to people who might be interested in your services is one of the best things that you can do to generate the best quality leads.
Many healthcare practices avoid thinking about lead generation like this because they're not keen on being associated with sales as an industry, in case it diminishes the patient-doctor relationship.
In fact, when it comes to relationship management, thinking about the healthcare journey couldn't be more important.
Why? The reason is this: those who map the healthcare journey and are attentive to their prospective patient's needs as they go through this consideration process are likely to be more empathetic and sensitive to that person!
From scheduling an appointment to future check-ups, planning your lead generation activities around someone's journey will naturally lead to better ideas for healthcare marketing strategies that engage and interest your target audience and help you generate high-quality leads.
Mapping the healthcare journey means more opportunities to engage, greater confidence in you as a medical practice, faster conversion, better patient experience, and a greater likelihood of someone signing up with your healthcare service in the long run.
Let's Talk SEO for the Healthcare Sector: What's Their "Symptoms" Language?
Search engine optimization - aka "SEO" is an essential part of any healthcare marketing strategy. In a nutshell, you want to make sure you create content that can be easily found by a search engine. So many people in the healthcare industry use this as a way to improve their lead generation results, and with good reason.
Obviously, we typically default to Google, so that's one of the best places to start! One of the best practices when it comes to thinking about optimizing your pages for searchability is to try to anticipate what your target audience will be looking for. This is why researching and understanding the healthcare journey is so important.
As Google says:
"Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, some users might search for "charcuterie", while others might search for "cheese board". Anticipating these differences in search behavior and writing with your readers in mind could produce positive effects on how your site performs in search results."
So where someone might not search for plantar fasciitis, it's much more likely that they'll search for "pain in arch of foot" or something similar.
When it comes to medical lead generation, making sure that you're making your language accessible like this (i.e. think about the symptoms someone might describe rather than technical jargon) can really help potential leads to build trust in you as a healthcare provider, and make them more ready to get in touch.
Generate Leads for your Healthcare Practice Through Content Strategy
Content marketing is one of the most effective lead generation tactics for healthcare companies. Provide value by creating relevant, consistent content that's tailored to different patient personas and watch as you generate healthcare leads.
Web Content
Think about your website from your potential patients' perspective. Is it easy to use? Does it make sense? Can they find the information they need – and most importantly, have you anticipated those needs? A great way to get more leads is to make sure your content is fit for purpose after you drive traffic to your website.
If your lead generation strategies are going to be all-encompassing, you need to think about other things that might attract new and prospective customers.
Even if you don’t have a huge catalog of content assets right now, you can get started with a few straightforward ideas. The content on your website could include a mix of any of the following:
- Infographics - what are the signs of meningitis in babies for new parents?
- Contact Number Lists - a downloadable asset people can save to their phone in case of an emergency.
- Tools - a BMI calculator or a free shopping list and meal plan for a week of healthy eating would be ideal.
- Lead Magnets - book a free consultation or get a special discount with every person you refer with a unique code.
The trick is to think deeply about where a lead might be on their journey, and match content to that stage.
Key Healthcare Lead Generation Strategies: Up Your Social Media Presence
All that fantastic web content? Repurpose it! This is one of our favorite ways to attract new leads.
Post that awesome content to your social channels and watch the quality leads come in. It sounds super obvious, but you’d be surprised how many folks miss this step.
Create shareable social posts - like wellbeing tips, medical 'word of the day' videos, suggestions for keeping healthy around flu season, private healthcare perks, quick "learn more about our healthcare team" reels, and more.
And when the age-old question of “which social channels should I be on?” rears its head – go to where your patient demographic spends their time, every time.
There are so many new social media platforms out there, we know it gets overwhelming - but be encouraged that this isn't something to get hung up on. What's important is that you're active on social media, and you're there for the right people at the right time.
Send High-Quality Email Drip Campaigns to Boost Sales Leads
Set up email marketing automation for healthcare through a platform like HubSpot to nurture leads based on their personas, interests, and readiness stages. It’s basic, but if you can send hyper-personalised emails that engage potential patients, then these people will feel ‘seen’ – you recognised their need and acted on it. They're much more likely to become a qualified medical lead.
And even if they don’t make a move – they’ll remember how you made them feel. Often, that memory can make all the difference when they do come to consider you, and your competitors.
Why Leading Healthcare Providers Use Events-Based Lead Generation
In-person events allow prospective clients to meet you in an environment where you can demonstrate your expertise. It's one of our favorite ways to generate leads.
Think about hosting drop-in clinic hours, where people can get healthcare information in person, and you can gather insights to understand what they need most support with to feel well and healthy. Email marketing comes in so handy - think about subject lines like "meet our healthcare pros!" or "free clinic Friday" to drive sign-ups.
Your potential patients get to see the quality of the services offered, and you can even create healthcare booklets or bundles that people can take away with them.
For example, if you run a chiropractic clinic, you might offer free 15-min spinal health checkups. Everyone who comes in signs up on your website, enabling you to capture their contact information online (this is essential for good customer relationship management in future) for your CRM.
The potential patient pops in for their check, they learn more about you, and you give them insights into their posture, good stretches, and a discount voucher for a future appointment. You also send them away with a healthy protein bar, a cold pack for any day-to-day discomfort, and maybe a small sachet of Epsom salts for a hot bath.
That event alone - just 15 minutes, with some forethought - is such a compelling lead magnet! The lead you will produce from that free session will be of such a high quality, that if you follow up in a system like HubSpot, their conversion to paying patient is pretty much guaranteed.
Measuring Qualified Leads in the Healthcare Industry? Track Source Channels!
If you're not tagging leads by source channel, you're missing out. Do you know where high-quality leads come from - e.g. a website form, referral partner, or another local GP practice?
Monitoring channel conversion performance and identifying your highest converting sources is a no-brainer! Any healthcare company worth its salt will know that these are the strategies to double down on.
When it comes to generating leads, this "boring" admin stuff, like lead scoring, segmentation, routing, and follow-ups - they are central components of your sales process.
The good news is that you can take the ick out of all this paperwork with a smart database like HubSpot! Not only does it do all the heavy lifting for you, but it also increases efficiency when you already have heaps to do.
This visibility also positions those who work in healthcare marketing to experiment with and optimize the healthcare lead generation process over time.
Key Lead Benchmarks for Healthcare Marketing Teams
With strategic initiatives in place to maximize inbound lead generation, what volume of leads should you aim to capture when it comes to high-quality potential patients?
It's a bit of a complex question, as your measurements really need to be specific to you as a healthcare provider. If you're using metrics that apply to another field or industry, you could be doing yourself a disservice.
When you want to figure out your target lead benchmarks, start by assessing your current pipeline:
- How many of my converted leads came from events, our website, our social channels, or referrals?
- For active leads, what conversion rates do I typically see based on channel or lead type? Where do I see the highest conversions?
- Based on my average patient value, how many patients do I need to convert to meet my sales target for the year?
Then, work backwards to set a target number of leads to generate and follow up on in each channel - your events calendar, website content, search engine readiness, email marketing, digital avenues, referrals, and so on - needed to fuel your required close rates.
Make sure you monitor your actual lead volumes and sales conversions monthly, to assess if you are on track to hit targets - and if not, change it up!
High-Quality Lead Generation for Healthcare Professionals - Let's Wrap Up!
If you're looking to take your lead generation efforts to the next level, then a competitive healthcare content and sales-lead strategy is essential for healthcare providers.
When it comes to leads for healthcare, you have so many ways to think about growing your medical practice and achieving your lead generation goals - whether that includes investing in lead generation services, or not.
You have to determine the best approach for your potential patients, and leverage a variety of effective strategies over time.
The key to success for anyone in the medical industry is getting the data on exactly which tools are driving leads to your practice. This is where tracking lead volume, conversion rates, quality of prospects, and end-to-end lead-to-patient rates to monitor your performance comes in.
Analyze these metrics to double down on what’s working and course correct where needed. Making it measurable is one of the most important factors that many healthcare professionals miss out on, but it really does make all the difference.
At AutomateNow, we've seen first-hand just how much a tool like HubSpot can help healthcare providers, bringing all your lead data under one roof, and supercharging your growth.
With consistent testing, optimisation and follow-up, you can develop a thriving pool of high-quality leads, happy people – and the healthy revenue that accompanies it. We'd love to help you get started! Book a call today.
